BBB July: Sukkar bi Tahin or Beirut Tahini Swirls

At last I have some time for baking and blogging again! Pre-vacation and post-work stress made me go silent for a while, even non-baking, despite its therapeutic benefits. Instead, the first week of vacation I spent reading, sleeping and knitting. But after that, the knead to fire up the oven became overwhelming.

I’m one of those more than 200 people who struggle along the Bread Baker’s Apprentice, so I have been baking a few of the recipes there, but I’m also a lucky member of the 12 Bread Baking Babes who each month tackle a new, exciting bread recipe.

This month’s host is the lovely Natashya of Living in the kitchen with puppies, and she selected this semi-sweet Lebanese streetfood, quite mild in its flavour, which really turned out to be a fun and tasty experience. I had never come across this bread before, but I definitely will make it again. I also tried a savoury filling together with the sesame paste which turned out really good.

The first step for me was to make tahini. Not that I can’t buy tahini in Sweden, but I find that I get so much more taste when I make it myself, and it’s really easy. Besides, an opened jar of tahini has a limited life-span, and the flavour deteriorates quite fast. So I can really recommend making your own:

I use unpolished sesame seeds which contains a little more nutrients than the standard polished variety. For the filling of this bread, I used about 200 ml or 3/4 cups sesame seeds. The seeds are roasted in a dry pan, and as soon as they begin to smell good and the colour shifts a little to the darker side, the seeds are transferred to a cold tray or pan to cool down.

When the seeds have cooled down, I grind them in my special spice grinder which if course is nothing but a disguised coffee grinder. (But I actually bought it to grind spices and not coffee…) I then add equal amounts of oil (preferably a neutral oil) and water (1–2 Tbsp each) to the ground seeds until I get the consistency I want. Maybe a little lemon juice to spike up the flavour a bit.

Tip: Sesame seeds and many spices have strong flavours that tend to stay behind in the grinder. To get rid if unwanted flavours, just grind a small amount of white rice right after you grind any aromatic foodstuff.

I divided the dough in two parts and made two fillings: the original tahini-sugar filling, and one savoury filling featuring mint and parsley leaves plus a little salt combined with the tahini. And they both turned out very nice in my opinion. Unfortunately, my camera decided to call it a day in the middle of the process, but I got one pic of the final result:

 

Would you like to be our Buddy and bake with us? – It’s not your every-day bread, but it’s very easy to make, and I don’t think you will be disappointed! You will find out everything you need over at Natashya’s place.

Also check out how the other babes handled these yummy swirlies – you will find the complete List of Babes in the sidebar to the right.